


The Destroyer of Dreams

by NeverGoodbye



Series: Shadowfury [3]
Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2010-05-31
Updated: 2010-05-31
Packaged: 2017-10-09 19:59:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/91000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NeverGoodbye/pseuds/NeverGoodbye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the forgotten reaches of the Deadwind Pass, a hidden power lurks. One warlock will claim this power, rise up among her people and bring an ancient and epic battle to the fore - the fallout from which will change the world of Azeroth forever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Atiesh

_As for me, I came back to ensure that there would be a future, to teach the world that it no longer needed Guardians.  
The hope for future generations has always resided in mortal hands. _

Nephthys watched in an awed surprise as the man descended the long staircase. His face was shrouded and he carried a long totemic staff. His descent seemed to stretch out, as if time itself were warping and bowing around the cloaked figure. He stopped on the second to last step, close enough that Nephthys could reach out and touch him with her fingertips if she had tried. She didn’t.

It was hard to describe what she was feeling in that moment. It was not exactly fear nor was it exactly admiration; it was more akin to a cautious curiosity of this man’s intent in bringing her to this place and revealing himself to her. They watched each other with careful regard. After a moment, he spoke.

“Are you not afraid, warlock?” His voice was not unkind though it echoed in the hall and seemed to reverberate in her mind even after the sound had dissipated.

She stood her ground. “Should I be? You have not given any intention of hurting me though you had opportunity.”

“There are worse things to fear than your body coming to harm.” He smiled knowingly and pulled his staff closer to him, seemingly examining the carved raven atop. “Nor would you know what was happening before I struck you down…” He shifted only his eyes to look at her, but the sideways glance sent shivers through her nonetheless. She swallowed hard, a little rattled. “…if I so chose, that is.”

She mustered her courage. “You haven’t yet.”

“Yet.” He chuckled, admiring her nerve. “Atiesh, awaken!” There was a swirl of grey smoke around him and the staff began glowing maddeningly. The raven atop grew larger, the black of its feathers more defined, the claws snapping and breaking free from its wooden clutch. The black plumes rustled and began stretching out larger and fuller and the bird screeched its freedom throughout the room. It soared up toward the ceiling, filling the upper reaches of the entrance room and kicking up currents of wind with its mighty flapping wings. Nephthys took a step back, cringing against the noise and the gusts.

“Who are you?” Nephthys shouted into the wind.

“I am Medivh the Eternal,” the now booming voice spoke. It seemed to come from the raven and not from the raven. It echoed around her and inside her head; it was everywhere all at once. She had a fleeting thought that maybe she was imagining all of this, but she shook it away. She wasn’t dreaming, she was here – awake – and really seeing these things around her. The raven screeched again and swooped close to where she stood. She stumbled backward and collided up against the stone wall.

Shielding her face with one arm, she yelled again, “What do you want with me?” She didn’t wait for an answer and starting chanting, drawing her voidwalker into being. Chargrave materialized but she kept him close to her, using him as a barrier between herself and the circling beast.

“I was once a wizard like yourself, warlock. But as my power grew, so did the corruption in my blood. I was a tool of those that empowered me, controlled me. Sargaras used me to wreck havoc on the world – the consequences of which continue to this day. Only now, as a spirit, can I see and understand the true nature of the world in which you live.”

“But what does this have to do with me?” “It is time that I seek another apprentice, and I have always been quite preferable to warlocks. You see, we pay a high price for our abilities and so tend to appreciate them more - appreciate their potential more. Don’t you agree?” Nephthys watched him noncommittally but inwardly she admitted that she did. He continued unfazed, “The time of the world as you know it draws short. There is precious little time to finally right what has been done ages ago. Tell me, warlock, do you have the strength to become what I seek?”

Upon speaking this, the raven shrieked and dove towards Nephthys. She gasped and sacrificed Chargrave to grant her a magical shield, deflecting the incoming attack. She cast a quick fear to disorient her foe and in the moment that bought her, triggered an instant, devastating soulfire attack. The fireball scorched the raven’s beautiful ebony feathers in a sphere of smoke and flame. Instead of attacking again, the raven sank in the air. It hovered near to the ground and raised its wings, pointing them toward the ceiling and enlongating its body. The feathers stretched and twisted, meshing together as they expanded and reformed the base and the head of the staff it had been before. With one more swirl of smoke, the staff became inert once more.

She did not move, blinking a couple times in disbelief. She half-expected the raven or the man, or even some other bizarre monster, to materialize but none did. She was alone in the entrance room once again, the great staff lying placidly at her feet. It was only then that she noticed her hands shaking slightly. When she had wished for adventure, being teleported to a raid dungeon and attacked by magical spirit creatures wasn't exactly what she had in mind. After a few minutes of silence, she crouched down and put her hand on the staff, testing it. It was cool to the touch and smooth like glass. It had that same reverberating energy that she had felt when Medivh had been speaking to her. She picked it up.

_Well done. _

She almost dropped the staff in surprise as that omnipresent voice occurred in her head again. She was losing it, she thought, definitely swan-diving off the deep end.

_Your courage and resilience in the face of danger speak for you, young one. Take this staff as your own, it will serve you well. _

“You’re… giving me your staff?” Nephthys asked weakly, not sure who to address her question to.

_I am the staff; the staff is me. Through it, I shall guide you and you shall learn to harness its power. _

Another sound behind her startled her, causing her to jump. She reeled around to see Moroes the butler standing at attention at the base of the stairs. She started, but the staff pulsed with energy and it calmed her. Seeing him more clearly now, he was not aggressive to her.

_You yet have a choice. Take the staff and follow Moroes to my private chamber. There you will find all the books and resources you will need to develop the powers I am granting you. Or, if you like, you may leave the staff and exit through the door you entered. It remains unlocked; the choice is yours. _

Nephthys hesitated. She did not relish the idea of turning over her life or her free will to this wizard spirit and all of the unknown consequences that entailed. But the power of the staff was undeniable and strongly alluring. It called to her, its energy delightfully radiating up through her arm. Besides, she reasoned, what kind of life was it really that she would be giving up? Endless days pacing about the Undercity while the rest of the world plays without her? No, this was an opportunity for greatness again.

She steeled herself and gripped the staff tighter. A wave of power coursed through her and she instinctively smiled. Already she felt the balance of power between her and the world shifting and she liked it. She took a step toward Moroes. He was an exceptionally gaunt man, with an impassive face and a ghostly pallor. He looked sickly, even for an undead, as if such a thing were possible. Nephthys felt oddly calm standing beside one whom she had fought so many battles against in the past. It was just that, she thought, past. She had spent too much time mourning the shadow of the past; it was time now to claim the future. She followed where Moroes led her.

_Together we will cleanse the world. Together, we will save it._


	2. Netherspite

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dragons rock.

 

With every step that Nephthys took up the long flight of stairs, she became more and more sure that she was dreaming. Daydreaming, she supposed, because she seemed awake enough. But she was convinced that at any given moment, all of the undead creatures around her would, at once, turn aggressive on her. Once they realized that she did not belong here – that she was not one of them – her surreal trip through the Karazhan tower would end. Most likely it would be at the blades of Moroes himself who walked not five yards away from her.

“Why do you think you are not one of us?” Moroes creaked through his thin dark lips, sensing her discomfort at the trip.

Nephthys was speechless for a moment, equally surprised at the break in the silence as she was at the question. She stammered a moment before managing. “What makes you think that I am?”

He only glanced in her direction. “Are you not undead?”

Nephthys nodded slowly. “But there are many such creatures within this world.”

“Do you not carry the Master’s staff? That alone is proof that you are called, as we all, are in this place.”

She regarded the staff in her hands and was silent. The butler did not speak further, only continued shuffling up the flight of stairs. Nephthys stood still, considering this, until Moroes was almost out of sight around the bend of the stairs. She ran up next to him and grasped his shoulder. He spun around and looked in her eyes.

“But I’m not a spirit! I don’t lie in wait to attack people. I don’t toy them into solving puzzles and wanting to send them to their deaths if they fail.”

“Neither do we,” he said. “You and your followers invaded this tower,” he reminded her. “What would you have us do? What would you do in such a situation?” He was right of course. There was a time only a few weeks ago when a party of gutsy Alliance members had stormed the Undercity and she had responded with vigor. She and others like her had aided the city guards in driving the invaders back and out of the city. Without hesitation or mercy, she had flung spells, torching human and dwarf alike in aid of what? A network of stone and steel, but one she had called her own. Begrudgingly fell into her step beside him up the stairs.

“I only kill when I have to,” she said at last. _Was she trying to convince him or herself of this statement?_

Moroes remained nonplussed. “Life kills life; it is the way of the world.”

They reached the top of the stairs and Moroes pushed the creaking wooden door open. Inside the observatory was a huge golden telescope and along the far walls, an array of bookshelfs.

“I thought we were going to the study,” Nephthys protested, recognizing the room they had entered. At the same time, she realized that it was beautiful – something she had never had the luxury of appreciating before. For good reason; her eyes grew wide upon seeing the immense spectral dragon on the far side of the room. As if on cue, Netherspite raised his huge head off his front claws and stretched his neck out. Jaws gaped open, he yawned and looked directly at the warlock. _This is it_, she thought weakly, _death at the claws and the jaws of this beast was imminent now_. But it only settled its head back down into its resting position, the curiosity of her entrance now fading.

“Still afraid, warlock?” Moroes chuckled next to her. His deathly white features cracked and twisted with the effort. “I will let you in on a little secret. As long as you wield that staff, everything in this tower will obey and bow to you.”

“But, what do I do?”

Moroes smiled sickly at her again. “I imagine, anything you wish.”

He bowed and vanished into the thin air leaving Nephthys standing alone in the room. For a moment, she stood as still as possible, trying to gather herself and sort out the strange and fantastic happenings of the past hour. She couldn’t shake the feeling that Moroes was still lurking somewhere, watching her. Something was.

She glanced at the staff she had held and wondered at its silence, or the voice’s silence that had spoken to her through it. _Reason be damned_, she thought. If I’m going to die here, it’s not going to be shaking in my boots like a gnome in an avalanche.   

Gathering her courage, she stood directly before the great beast and held up the staff. “Dragon, I command you!” She shouted. It answered her by raising its head, this time with purpose and ferocity. It rose onto its mighty haunches, stretching out and looming over her. It unfurled its tail and powerful wings and bellowed a mighty roar that shook the walls of the observatory. The great dome on the ceiling unhinged itself and divided into two halves, opening up the room to the brilliant night sky above them. Nephthys gazed in wonder at the night lights; how long had it been since she had seen the stars above her in their entire splendor?

The dragon turned and tipped its massive body to one side passively, laying a wing down and beckoning to her. She climbed onto the beast’s back and it launched itself up toward the divided hole in the roof.

A moment later and they were flying through the air, close enough almost to touch the pinpoints of light swirling around them in the dark purple and blues of the night. The rushing wind the dragon pushed with its wings flew over her and swirled around her, taking her breath away. The terrific height they flew above the land, the torrents of air, and the massive pounding muscles of the dragon underneath her were dizzying – and also extremely gratifying.

For as fast and as ferociously as they traveled, she felt secure, perched on the crest of the dragon’s back and nestled into a sweet spot between the bridge of its neck and the pounding of its wings. She laughed out loud and shouted into the wind, in a voice she hardly recognized as her own. The dragon echoed with its own deafening roar that stretched out in every direction into the abyss of the sky around them.

As the world far beneath them slept, the warlock on her dragon soared into the reaches of the night and the depths of the freedom in her heart.


End file.
